With over ten years experience creating live visuals, Brian Dressel makes up half of the vj collective known as OVT Visuals. As one of the frontrunner’s and pioneers in this industry OVT has worked with some of the top names in the DJ industry.

 

Recently OVT was given the task of creating the visual component to DJ Sasha’s residency at the infamous Crobar. For this task OVT enlisted Livid’s Union to control the live feeds and visuals, blurring the lines between the VJ’s and DJ’s performance.

What is your background? How did OVT come about? 

I come from a video production background. I’ve been involved with every aspect of production, from gripping and painting sets to producing and directing. I originally went to school for engineering, but transferred to the film program half way through. My grandfather repaired TV’s, so I grew up around mountains of broken electronics, which was pretty cool. I learned how to build and repair electronics, then learn to program in college. I’ve continued that by learning how to use MAX/MSP/Jitter-which I now use to control various outboard gear for our shows, like video routers and switchers for automation. OVT was born when I met Brien Rullman and Vello Virkhaus in 1992. We all had similar interests in video art and use raves as a way of displaying our work to a very appreciative audience. Word of mouth got us going and we worked every Friday/Saturday night for years, until raves were all but shut down in every city around the country. Since then, we have moved on to focus on concerts/special events and nightclub video design and installation. 

How did you link up with DJ Sasha? 

I received a call from his manager one day after he had seen our work at a recent show and had heard wonderful things about us from DJs and promoters that we have worked with. They also were sold by our web site-which has an offering of our services and past work. 

 

You have a long list of famous DJs that you’ve worked with over the years. How does the creative process usually work between you and the DJ?

Most DJs come to us and say “Hey, just do what you do and make me look good!” Other DJs have a very specific idea of what they want to see. In general, I they want more than just psychedelia, so we’ll conceptualize with them and offer ideas of what we have in our library, or what we can either shoot or create using After Effects or in 3D or whatever. With Sasha, he was very specific about keeping everything very minimal. So we used a lot of simple lines, geometric shapes, waveforms and architectural wireframes to set the mood. When the time was right, we’d kick it in with a mass of swirling fast cut imagery bouncing around the multiple screens. 

 

When putting visuals to a DJ set how do you create a connection between the imagery and music? 

We usually start with a conversation beforehand about the general visuals set list. The idea is to stylize each show with a specific palette of colors and effects. For example, we may start with a black and white/red look for the first hour, then punch it with all fast cuts and mirror effects, then work into a slow groovy morphing look. Union is great for that as we can set different effect presets for different music cues. 

During show you worked in some great live feeds of Sasha in the DJ booth. What kinds of effects within Union were you using to get those looks? 

We use ‘edge detect’ to get a wireframe tron sort of look, then used feedback blur to give the constant zooming feel. It’s a great effect and one that makes this show unique. We switch between live feed and quicktime clip playback, utilizing the same effect to keep a consistent look and feel for the Sasha events. The key is be minimalist and not take the traditional bombastic approach which we are known for. It’s a challenge and it kept us on our toes. 

 

How does Livid Union helped with what you are trying to accomplish? 

The idea of preset effect palettes are key. The great thing for me is that I have my Edirol PCR-1 midi controller mapped to the effect controls, so I’m constantly tweaking the controls. I love the tactile experience of controlling software through MIDI controllers and Union makes this a very simple operation, plus it’s real-time and very accurate. Another great element which I haven’t seen in any other VJ software is that we can use the live feed for live cameras or another video source. This is very important during a live show, as it adds a real-time interactive element that the audience can see and know that it’s live and not just playing off of a DVD or something. 

 

Do you have any advice for those just starting out? 

1. Tools don’t make the artist. Don’t use the same ‘canned’ effects that everyone else is using. Create your own effects. 

2. Plan your show ahead of time, with a general idea of what you are trying to accomplish. 

3. Shoot and edit your own footage to play back. It’s much more interesting and fun if you do it yourself and not play someone else’s work. 

4. For me, screen design is just as important as the content being shown on it. Do something original and unique with your presentation. 

5. Always plan for the worst. 

 

OVT has been in the video production game for over ten years, how do you see the future of the performance visuals taking shape in the next ten years?

I’m very excited about using new LED technology and electroluminescent fabric, instead of projectors. I can’t wait to walk into a venue and roll out a fabric video screen that is self powered and wireless. Anything to avoid running cables and rigging heavy gear in dirty ceilings would be amazing to me. I see a lot more use of video servers with multiple streaming outputs. This would be the ultimate VJ system for me. As technology advances, systems will get smaller and more portable, with built in screens and touch sensitive controls for more real time interaction. 

 

What kinds of projects can we expect to see from OVT in the future?

I’m working on interactive video installations right now that will be installed in restaurants, retail stores and nightclubs. I’m also writing software to control hardware components for VJ use. I’ve always been fascinated by multiscreen applications. I have been working on connecting multiple computers together to sync multiple videos together, to tile one image across multiple screens. Livid Union seems to be a great tool for this as I can just use a MIDI controller to trigger all of the separate computers.

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interviews by Jay